Reduction in Diabetes Prevalence Could Mean Decreases in HF Hospitalizations

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Reduction in Diabetes Prevalence Could Mean Decreases in HF Hospitalizations

At the
population level, diabetes is a stronger risk factor for new heart failure (HF)
than 4 other modifiable risk factors, namely smoking, dyslipidemia, obesity,
and hypertension, suggests the latest analysis from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study cohort.

ARIC is
a longitudinal study of more than 15,000 African American and Caucasian men and
women in 4 communities across the United States, who were recruited during the
1980s when they were aged 45 to 64. The current analysis included 14,709 of the
participants followed an average of 17.6 years.

According
to the authors, the lifetime risk of incident heart failure was about 1 in 3
for its African American participants and reached 1 in 4 in Caucasians. In both
groups, that risk was higher than the lifetime risk of new coronary heart
disease or stroke in the same population.

In
addition, they found that a percentage drop in diabetes prevalence would avert
more cases of new HF than the same percentage decrease of any of the 4 other
studied modifiable risk factors. Specifically, a 5% proportional reduction in
the prevalence of diabetes in ARIC African American participants would result
in approximately 53 fewer HF cases per 100,000 person-years and 33 fewer HF
hospitalizations per 100,000 person-years for Caucasians.

Free full-text of the article is available in Journal of the American College of
Cardiology.